Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Ten Things of Shame and Past

Feminist author subjected to a stream of sexist abuse over new book/Independent

Feminist author Laurie Penny has been subjected to "a stream of vile sexist and anti-Semitic abuse" as part of a campaign against her book Unspeakable Things, she says. Penny also highlights how more than 20 one-star reviews on Amazon were an obvious attempt at sabotage and had nothing to do with intelligent criticism.

Singer Amy Winehouse, who died in 2011, detailed her dreams to have children in a previously unpublished 2004 interview. "Ten years from now I'll be 30, so I'll maybe have one baby," she said.

There are only three Ferrari 275 GTB/C Speciale cars in existence built during late 1964 and early 1965, making it hyper-rare.

In December 1945, fifty-two ancient texts were discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt that included "secret" gospels poems and myths attributing to Jesus Christ and sayings and beliefs which are very different from the New Testament.

The crescent moon and star is a Middle Eastern symbol that pre-dates Islam by several thousand years. The early Muslim community flew simple solid-coloured flags (generally black, green, or white) for identification purposes, with no markings, writing, or symbolism on it. It wasn't until the Ottoman Empire that the crescent moon and star became affiliated with the Muslim world. The Ottomans adopted the existing flag and symbol of Constantinople after conquering the Byzantine city in 1453, but it's believed the crescent and star goes back even further to the Sassanids in Persia. The star was originally six-pointed, too, suggesting it may have been adopted from the Star of David in Judaism.

Protesting on the streets of Moscow - or any other part of Russia, for that matter - will now not only cost a pretty penny, but also could land you behind bars, after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a law into effect criminalising repeated street protests.